Junction City teams headed to regional

RISON – Both of Junction City’s varsity basketball teams easily clinched a berth to the upcoming regional by dominating their opposition in round two of the 7-2A East District Tournament Tuesday.

The Dragons rolled past the Rison Wildcats – host of the event – 82-56.

Junction City, champion of the South Division, went on the attack in the second quarter. Once the Dragons began to assert themselves, they cruised to the victory.

“We were playing the home team of the district tournament. We had talked about how we can’t give them hope,” said Junction City Coach Kendall Hutcheson. “If you let Rison have hope and allow it to be a close game at the half, you got a fight on your hands the rest of the game. We wanted to make sure we didn’t let that happen.”

In the girls contest, the Lady Dragons expected to control the action, and they did. Junction City thumped the Dermott Lady Rams 65-20.

Junction City, which is the No.1 seed from the South Division, never allowed Dermott to think it had a chance.

At the conclusion of the first quarter, the Lady Dragons led 25-4.

Dermott fell behind by a substantial margin due primarily to being unable to handle Junction City’s defensive pressure.

By the midway point of the second stanza, coach Henry Harrell had placed several reserve players into the game. When the intermission arrived, Dermott trailed 43-10.

In the second half, the Lady Rams were unable to make a run.

Junction City (19-2) held Dermott at bay by using a fusion of starters and reserves in the third. During the fourth, with the Sportsmanship Rule in effect, Junction City continued to dominate the game earning a 65-20 win.

“We took care of business. We were able to qualify for the regional. We’ll now focus on playing the winner of the Strong-Bearden game,” Harrell stated. “Hopefully, we can win the entire tournament and get a No.1 seed for the regional.”

Nikayla Fisher finished with 14 points, Jyrhezia Nathan compiled 12, and Chakeenia Malone scored eight.

Dermott’s scoring leader was Latasha Figures who had six points.

The Dragons sent a resounding statement to Rison in the second stanza, and it was smooth sailing from that point forward for Hutcheson’s team.

In the second quarter of the Dragons’ affair against Rison, the game was played at a fast pace. However, Junction City (14-5) did a better job of competing at an accelerated style of play.

As a result, what was a three-point lead at the end of the first period for the Dragons, ballooned to 22 at the half. Junction City received a boost from Jerrodney Tubbs in the second period. Making his premiere on the varsity level Tubbs, a burly 6-2 freshman forward, contributed 14 points and four rebounds in the latter stages of the opening half to help Junction City claim control of this contest.

“In the first quarter, we had balls slipping through our hands and we weren’t making shots. We didn’t look very enthusiastic in the first quarter,” Hutcheson said. “We had a talk in between quarters. We then came out and finished shots, held onto the ball and began to look more like us. It was a lot better performance in the second quarter.”

In the second half of the game, the two combatants continued to race up-anddown the court.

Rison (3-14) reduced Junction City’s lead to 56-41 in the third. However, the Wildcats could get no closer.

The host team trailed 67-44 at the end of the third. During the fourth, with several reserve players from both teams seeing the majority of the action, Junction City’s advantage expanded to as much as 31 with under three minutes left to play.

When time expired, Junction City had marched to an 82-56 win.

“Our defense was solid except for about three or four minutes when we gave up too many easy shots,” Hutcheson said. “After we struggled to finish shots in the first, we began to finish in the second and began to play much better.”

Tubbs led the Dragons with 24 points while Tyrus Grayson – who thrilled the crowd with an impressive Windmill dunk in the fourth – compiled 21. Keelan Ford scored 14.

Rison’s top scorer was Cameron Reaves who had

16. Chris Leakes finished with 15.

Junction City will next play the winner of the Bearden-Parkers Chapel game, Friday evening.